April 18 (Reuters) - Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank President Raphael Bostic on Thursday said that if inflation does not continue to move toward the U.S. central bank's 2% goal, as he expects it will, central bankers would need to consider an interest-rate hike.
"If inflation stalls out or even starts moving in the opposite direction, away from our target, I don't think we'll have any other option but to respond to that," Bostic said at the University of Miami.
"If it seems that the level of restrictiveness that we're at today is not enough to do the job or get the job done, I'd have to be open to increasing rates." (Reporting by Ann Saphir Editing by Chris Reese)
